ActionAid Palestine to Support Participation of Palestinian Young People in Palestine Marathon
Bethlehem -Palestine -Through its project of “Strengthening Palestinian Young people, Particularly Young Women’s Leadership and Influence for Resilient, Just and Green Societies”, ActionAid Palestine (AAP) supported participation of more than 250 young people in 9th Palestine Marathon organized by the Palestinian High Council for youth and Sport under the slogan of “Run for Freedom”. The participants came from Jerusalem and governorates of West Bank in addition to participation of AAP’s staff and staff members of ActionAid in Arab Region. Supporting participation of those young people aimed to promote their civic and community engagement and offer them spaces and opportunities for raising their voice and demanding the international community to pay attention to the movement restrictions imposed by Israel on the movement of Palestinians. This marathon constitutes a peaceful way to refuse the Israeli barriers and protest against them. It is also an opportunity for Palestinians to meet with each other from Palestine and diaspora and with other international participants to express solidarity and show the impact of movement restrictions on the daily lives of Palestinians.
Through marathon, runners go through different stations that represent many aspects of the Palestinian cause, such as passing by the apartheid that separates Palestinian cities from each other and hinders the movement of Palestinians and passing by the camps of Aida and Dheisheh for Palestinian refugees, as these camps represent the forcible displacement of Palestinians from their lands in 1948.
AAP organized stations on the side of the marathon to highlight the importance of ActionAid Palestine's work in empowering women, the issue of climate change in Palestine and forcible displacement.
More than young 20 volunteers from Global Platform Palestine of AAP assisted marathon management. They volunteered for 3 days in distributing running equipment in Bethlehem.
The Palestine International Marathon was organized for the first time in 2013 where around 1,200 participants from Palestine and the world participated in . However, more than 10,000 participants participated in the activities of the Palestine International Marathon for this year 2023, including about 1,800 foreigners from 90 countries around the world.
Runners, especially Arabs, face restrictions in entering Palestine to participate, and runners from the Gaza Strip face severe restrictions that prevent them from participating because they are prevented from passing through the Israeli checkpoints imposed on the borders of the Gaza Strip.
Background Information
ActionAid in Palestine (AAP) is a part of global federation working for social justice and gender equality and eradicate poverty in more than 45 countries around the world. AAP started its work in Palestine in 2007 to strengthen the resilience of Palestinian People as ActionAid believes that they should enjoy their rights to freedom, justice and self-determination. AAP implements a number of programs through its engagement with communities and women and youth groups seeking to empower them and enhance their influential civil and political participation to understand their rights and undertake collective activism to address the protracted rights violations resulting from the prolonged occupation of Palestine. AAP works simultaneously to enhance their leadership capacity and knowledge to practice their citizenship in holding authorities and other duty bearers to account.
For more information, please contact.
Riham Jafari
Coordinator of Advocacy and Communication in Palestine
Mobile:
+972 (0) 595242890
Office:
+972 (0) (2) 22 13 137
Email: